Prof. Srinivas Chary, currently Director, Centre for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance, and Infrastructure Development, ASCI, specialises in urban governance and institutional reforms, urban environmental management, capacity building and service delivery improvement strategies, particularly in water and sanitation, with over 18 years of professional experience.

An engineer, urban planner and management professional by training, Prof. Chary, prior to joining ASCI, was a Senior Faculty at the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI), Hyderabad and at Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi. He was professionally affiliated to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, University of Bradford, UK, University of Manchester, UK, and Water Engineering Development Centre, UK. He is also a Chevening fellow.

Prof. Chary has lead over 130 research and consulting assignments in the areas of policy development, municipal reforms, city development planning, 24-7 Water Supply, Universal Sanitation, PPP, Urban Poverty Reduction, Tariffs And Cost Recovery Strategies, Benchmarking, Capacity Enhancement Strategies, Change Management and Urban Environmental Management – both in India and South Asia. He has conceptualised and implemented structured capacity building programmes for elected representatives, officers of Indian Administrative Service and urban sector professionals. Chary has pioneered and rolled out a unique national level program (in partnership with World Bank Institute) to professionalise and provide cutting edge skill sets to urban managers through a Certification Program in Urban Management offering comprehensive training and field experience in urban management. The program is being scaled up both in reach and scope extending to specialized programs in PPP management in urban water sector, urban poverty reduction and in municipal finance.

Prof. Chary was also instrumental in establishing the Urban Resource Link (in partnership with MoUD)- a unique model of information support for urban local and state governments, the Change Management Forum, which facilitates peer learning amongst a network of municipal officers and elected representatives for achieving 24-7 water supply in urban India. Further, he is the Editor for the monthly newsletter ‘JNNURM-Making a Difference’. He has pioneered the National Urban Water Sector Awards to recognize excellence in urban water management for municipalities in India. As a member of the urban sanitation taskforce, he played a catalytic role in the formulation of the National Urban Sanitation Policy and Reward Scheme of the GoI.

He published over 30 papers in national and international professional journals and has contributed to writing over five books. He presented over a hundred papers as an invited speaker in various conferences. His teaching experience includes management development courses at ASCI, the Water Engineering Development Centre (WEDC), UK and at several reputed Indian institutions such as LB Academy.

Prof. Chary has been conferred an Ashoka Fellowship for the institutional model he has rolled out towards provision of continuous (24-7) water supply. He serves in numerous national and international committees related to urban policy and infrastructure management. These include the National Urban Sanitation Taskforce, Committee on CDP Guidelines, Taskforce on Capacity building for ULBs constituted by GoI, Urban Infrastructure Management by FICCI, Urban Water Management of CII. He is a Committee member in the EAROPH on urban planning, a member of the Steering Committee, Singapore International Water Week 2009 and a member of Scientific Committee, WEDC International Conference (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene: Sustainable Development & Multisectoral Approaches)

He is presently providing strategic, policy /advisory and technical support to the Ministry of Urban Development, Govt of India, State and city governments as well as national resource institutions. He supports the Ministry of Urban Development by undertaking independent appraisal of city development plans and reforms implementation under the JnNURM. He provides consulting support and technical assistance to national and international agencies. He is passionately committed to capacity building with the objective of ensuring continuous water supply and open defecation free urban systems.